Police and Crime Commissioner, Donna Jones, working with Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight councils, has successfully secured £648,755 of funding from the Home Office to tackle violence against women and girls.
The funding comes as part of the latest round of the Government’s Safer Streets fund which was created to increase the safety of public spaces for all. Some crimes which take place in public places such as sexual harassment disproportionately affect women which is why this third round focuses on interventions to protect women and girls.
The funding will enable the delivery of interventions that target the root causes of violence against women and girls and emphasise changing attitudes and behaviours and challenging gender stereotypes. This includes education programmes in schools to combat unhealthy behaviours, and campaigns focused on student safety. The funding will also be used for physical interventions, such as CCTV and lighting as in previous rounds of the Safer Streets fund.
Donna Jones said:
“Violence against women and girls has been an issue in this country for generations, but recent high profile cases mean it is very much at the front of our minds at present, and rightly so. VAWG offences cause significant harm and distress to victims, their friends and family, witnesses, and wider society. It is crucial that we work together to stop these crimes happening in the first place – through better education and awareness; by challenging misogyny and hate in society; and working to change repeat offenders’ behaviour.
“Through initiatives such as those being funded under Safer Streets and the work of my Task Group I want to ensure that everything that can done, is being done to tackle and prevent crimes of violence against women and girls.”
Councillor Ian Stephens, Isle of Wight Council Cabinet member for community protection and digital transformation, said:
“With the news of a successful Safer Street bid, we look forward to mobilising the schemes as outlined within our application. I firmly believe that the onus on keeping both women and girls safe in public places is the responsibility of all and does not rest with the individual alone. We have a vision to make the Isle of Wight a safer place for all within our communities, particularly women and girls who face higher levels of violence and harassment in public places. Through the work of this bid we hope to make positive progress in achieving that vision.”
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All of the interventions under Safer Streets will have a life beyond the initial funding period (the funding is to spend in the 21/22 financial year), by challenging underlying behaviours and by building local capacity. While these interventions are currently Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight based, if successful they can be used to help other local authorities to tackle this widespread issue and improve safety in public spaces, primarily for women and girls.
The last Woman to be assaulted here was bottled by another woman at 3.00pm in broad daylight…men are more than twice as likely to be assaulted or murdered than women in the UK, men also have sky high suicide rates but no its all about women and how terrible their lives are, give us a break,..maybe true stats are worth quoting in sorting this nonsense out..including the sex and ethnicity of the offenders, locally it be women stabbing and killing partners not the other way round..the last woman murdered here by a loser male was mid ninetys.. how can women be mostly affected when men are murdered at twice the national rate of women??
Women as hound be able to wear what they want, walk home abd trust a bloody police man without thinking he might rape and murder her if her ic he fancied a bit!!! There are disgusting men looming and assaulting and sexually harassing very young girls in early evening hours in our island towns now. They think it’s ok fur some reason. It happened last night to our daughter. No reason he was a drunk predator who blatantly went to touch her and said he couldn’t help himself!!! Yes we’re all unsafe but young women are particularly vulnerable.
yawn..young people are at risk full stop, its not just women..one copper is a deviant so all police are deviants according to you. think you will find the drunk crews in our towns are not from here, imported scum, the last murder here was a woman stabbing her male partner, its sick that a bloke has approached your daughter but you should inform the police..swat team there in 5seconds..real men do not like these scumbags if you take the time to ask them, the island has been invaded by bad people male and female, the Echo covers quite a bit of these imported filth. The police are here to help or are you going to have a candelight vigil instead of calling them.
There were young women out in the street Saturday night screeching & shouting, throwing bottles around & smashing them, threatening and using foul language. All in a supposedly quiet area. I think some people don’t live in the real world to know what many very aggressive girls are like nowadays. Not all are shrinking violets or snowflakes, and there has always been nasty men, and nasty women also. I don’t know where people get the opinion from that a woman must be something frightened, vulnerable, in need of protection, and entirely innocent of anything and everything, merely because they are women. Good and bad everywhere, M or F.
I see plenty of women walking about late at night, on their own, some with others, some talking loudly on their phones so the whole street can hear their swearing in the middle of the night. Plenty of violent women about as well. This is all getting a bit one sided.
I would say police the streets but we have to feel safe from all men as we’ve sadly learned from tragic circumstances.
Young women are being harassed sexually and violently attacked by men and young lads. Why has it suddenly hit worse? There’s no integrity. Women and anyone else should be able to out and enjoy themselves dressed how they want without being abused in any way by anybody. We’re going backwards not moving forward. It’ll be Afghan before we blink if we let it!! Terrible and terrifying
So so sorry, but you are talking complete and utter bollox…!
Waited 7 years for the police to help me. Still nothing. Every one has the right to feel safe. Men and woman.
she says..through better education and awareness; by challenging misogyny and hate in society;
what about misandry or are you pretending it doesn’t happen